An electricity expert at Purdue University has taken an average tricycle and made it into an electrically powered, energy-testing machine that could help develop new technologies for greener vehicles.
Athula Kulatunga, associate professor of electrical engineering technology, received support from General Motors to build a plug-in electric bicycle as a learning platform for power electronics and applied research on controllers, charging devices, battery configurations and motor drives. The result is a tricycle that features a reclining seat, pedals in the front and handlebars on the side for steering.
"The purpose of the tricycle is to conduct research, not to produce or design these for commercial use," said Kulatunga, who directs research in the International Rectifier Power Electronics Development and Applications Laboratory in the College of Technology.
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